Shetland - Mainly Puffins!!

 We paid another visit to Sumburgh Head, the wind had dropped significantly, Tina even said as we got out of the car, there's something strange today..... then realised it was no wind! 😂

So here you go......Puffins!

There were other birds about of course:

Meadow Pipit,

Guillemots and Razorbills,

and of course Fulmars.

Then for some heavy metal birds, good views of Sumburgh Airport:

So that's it! Back to local birding....................................

Shetland - A Good Start

 So after an overnight crossing from Orkney we arrived at 7am in Lerwick and were off the ferry by 7.15. We had found a cafe in Lerwick that opened at 8, so we went there for breakfast, we couldn't believe the queue, it was a 'proper cafe' and the breakfast was great. As we couldn't get into our AirBnB until 3pm and it was only 30 minutes away we decided to go down to Sumburgh Head and do a bit of refamiliarisation,  as it was 10 years since our last visit, almost to the day. I also have to admit that we were really tired, we didn't get much sleep on the ferry and we had a nap in the car down at Grutness.

Of course the wind was decidedly 'up' so the birds were keeping a low profile. But a Wheatear showed for a while.

A view of the lighthouse and visitor centre.

The cliffs at the bottom revealed:

Gannets passing by,

Plenty of Guillemot

and Fulmar

with the odd Razorbill hidden among them.

But the stars of the show are the Puffins, although there weren't that many out of their burrows:

Too windy for this one!

 Great Skua (Bonxie) sailed past as well, shame I wasn't quick enough to get a decent photo

but the Fulmars will always put on a show!

So a really good start to Shetland and we still hadn't got to our digs yet!

Inchcolm Island

 We did want to get out to the Isle of May this year, but just didn't get the opportunity before it was fully booked up. Then bird flu hit, so hopefully next year. As a compromise we booked a trip out to Inchcolm Island from South Queensferry in the hope of seeing some Puffins there.

However when we landed on the island, we found that the paths out to where the Puffins nest were sadly closed. Never mind! 😒

We had a nice time on the island anyway, there were lots of Gull chicks about:

Fulmar:

And if there were lots of Gull chicks, there must be a lot of Gulls (Herring & Lesser Black Backed)

Even though we couldn't get to the part of the island where the Puffins were nesting, it doesn't mean we didn't see any:

Then there's always going to be Oystercatchers around:

It also appears Gnomes are quite common here too:

So a few scenic shots: